Terribly Terrific Tuesdays
by Naomi S. Goldson
Summary: Lily had an awful day, so James decides cheer her up to the best of his abilities. LE/JP; Written for the Pairing One Hour Challenge!


Lily was not having a good day.

It began as usual - waking up early to get ready and make sure that everything was in order for the day. She put her homework into her bag and went to breakfast. On her way down, Peeves, who had developed a liking for water balloons recently, uttered a loud war cry and dropped an enormous plastic, water filled item on Lily, thoroughly soaking her. The Slytherins jeered at her about her Muggleborn status through breakfast, which did little to brighten her mood. When she went to Transfiguration, she found that her homework had been completely ruined by water and was completely unable to be salvaged. It was much the same for her Charms, and in Potions, someone slipped powered erumpet horn into her cauldron, causing it to explode and earn her a very poor mark.

So it was that Lily returned to the Gryffindor Common room that evening, grumbling angrily to herself about how terrible school was.

"You know, talking to oneself is generally observed to be a sign of madness, Miss Evans."

"What do you need, James?" Lily asked, her head held in her hands as she sat on the couch, feeling defeated and miserable. James plopped down unceremoniously beside her, looking at her in concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, sounding concerned.

"No," she said. "Peeves dropped a giant water balloon on my head, I got a T on both my transfiguration and charms homework because it was ruined by the water, my potion exploded, and people were bothering me all day."

"I'm sorry," James said, wrapping an arm around her comfortingly. "People can be really stupid sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Lily said, scoffing. "And where were you all day? This is the first I've seen of you. I would have thought my boyfriend would be around to punch the idiots in the face rather than abandoning me."

"I didn't abandon you," James said. "I was working on something important."

"And that is?" Lily said, frowning at him. James smiled mischievously.

"I'll show you," he said, pulling her to her feet.

"Are we going to be breaking the rules?" she asked.

"It depends," James replied, "because, you see, as Head Boy and Girl, we are allowed to leave the grounds."

"Yeah, that's true," Lily said cautiously, "but what's the catch?"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out pretty quickly," James answered with a wink. Then he pulled her out of the common room and down the hall. As they, Lily could feel her frustration fading away and she smiled. They stopped outside a statue in a rarely used hall and Lily threw a confused look at James. He shook his head and tapped the statue, murmuring a spell Lily hadn't ever heard before. The statue shifted and James led Lily to a black hole that was recently uncovered. She stared in shock.

"Does this lead out of the castle?" she asked in awe.

"Of course it does," James said. "I'll go, then you jump and I'll catch you."

Lily bit her lip nervously. "Are you sure it's safe?" she questioned nervously.

"Very," James said. "I've been through a million times, and I wouldn't dream of dropping you. Especially," he added teasingly, "after such a terrible day."

"Alright," Lily conceded reluctantly. James jumped in and, after taking a deep breath, Lily followed. She felt air rush past her and she thought her heart might stop from fear before she landed in James' arms.

"Told you," he said, setting her down. "I'm awesome."

"Humility is a virtue," she said lightly before wandering down the dirt path beneath her feet – or at least she supposed it must be dirt. It certainly wasn't stone. James caught up, laughing, a moment or so later, and grabbed her hand. They walked in companionable silence for some time until the roof of the passage seemed to get lower until she was nearly lying on her stomach on the floor. It definitely was dirt. "What's going on?" she asked.

"We have to crawl for a bit," he said. "Here, I'll get us some light." Light flooded the small area from the tip of James' wand and Lily laughed.

"Should have thought of that earlier," she said, smiling. "Going to tell me where we're going now?"

James smiled. "I'm bringing you out to fix your bad day," he said, "and the only way to do that is to get you out of the castle with me."

"Mission accomplished on both accounts," Lily said. "We're out of the castle, and I'm already forgetting how terrible it was."

"I love you, Lils," James said, kissing her nose softly.

"I love you, too, James," Lily replied, tilting her head up and meeting his lips in a kiss.

Lily had a good day.

**A/N: Written for the Pairing One Hour Challenge. I was given the pairing Lily/James and used the prompts Tuesday and Frustration. Yay? :) It may not seem like Tuesday is really used... but I think of bad day and go TUESDAY. So that's where it came from. Hopefully, you can see how I used frustration.**

**I hope it's okay! **

**Reviews are always welcome!**

**-Naomi**


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